He convinced Williams to purchase the facility, which is now Alliance Healthcare System. My dad would call on Williams again, this time to prevent the local hospital from closing in the late 1990s. Kenneth Williams, who opened Williams’ Medical Clinic there in the 1990s. He had a vision that Holly Springs needed a good doctor, preferably African American – not just for health reasons, but so that young people of color could SEE what a career in medicine looks like in the flesh. As I listened to the stories people told, I realized: Whenever I’m in Holly Springs, I’m always walking around in his vision. On the 18th anniversary of his death, my hometown paused for a candlelight vigil, a chance to reflect on the impact he left. It says something about the life he lived, that people still want to actively celebrate his life. How often do you literally get to walk around inside your father’s vision? As one of his final projects, he envisioned it as a common ground for the whole town. Smith Multipurpose Building on North Memphis Street. Lee Eric SmithĪnd I still get chills when I walk inside the Eddie L. For many years, there was an annual program commemorating the day he was born. A few years later, a street would bear his name. That same year, a health fair was named in his honor. 25, 2001, while serving the final months of his final term. It certainly doesn’t measure the impact you leave behind. I think most people intrinsically know the color of your skin has nothing to do with your qualifications for the job. It was a pretty big deal at the time, though when you think about it, it shouldn’t have been. Thirty years ago this year, in 1989, my father, Eddie Lee Smith Jr., made history as the first African American elected mayor of my hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi.
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